1. Field Of The Invention
The present invention relates to a film video player/printer. More particularly, the invention relates to a film video player/printer of minimal complexity for making a customized optical print corresponding to a film image shown on a video display.
2. Description Relative To The Background Art
Cropping is a photographic printing technique in which a photofinisher effectively eliminates a portion of a photographic original, e.g. color negative film, in order to print only a specific portion of the original image. A professional photographer routinely uses cropping and other photofinishing techniques, such as making prints in one format (either horizontal or vertical) from an original in an opposite format, to print pictures of maximum interest and visual impact. Amateur photographers, who do their own printing, likewise employ cropping and format converting to improve their prints.
A commercial photofinisher makes these services available to improve customer prints, but the services are used infrequently with mixed results. A photographic customer encounters a problem in identifying to the photofinisher exactly what part of the original is to appear in the print. The problem is aggravated, of course, because the customer often has not had the benefit of seeing either the original or a sample print.
It is believed that a photographic print could be improved considerably if a customer were provided with a convenient way of composing a picture, cropped as desired, in either or both formats, prior to deciding upon the final print format and composition.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,482,924, which is assigned to the assignee of the present invention, discloses a photographic system comprising a printer for use with a film video player in which a film image is first displayed on a video monitor such as a standard television receiver. A video player control panel serves for selectively displaying a video image corresponding to only a portion of the film image and for varying the magnification of the image displayed. When the video display is composed as desired, a recorder applies coded magnetic indicia to the film, specifying the selected magnification and cropping coordinates. The printer of the system includes a magnetic reader for reading the coded indicia, to provide for the proper magnification and cropping, to thereby make an optical print of the film corresponding to the image on the video display.
Although the system of U.S. Pat. No. 4,482,924 provides a convenient way of displaying and composing the portion of a film image to be printed, the magnetic recording and reading of information on the film adds complexity to the photographic printing process, thereby increasing its cost and further delaying the completion of a print.
Japanese Pat. No. 58-100124 discloses unitary film video player/printer apparatus having variable magnification fills a central rectangular area of a video screen, a zoom lens setting is noted and used to set a printing lens and/or printing paper position, to thereby make a print of the film image corresponding to the video image filling the central area of the screen.
Although the Japanese patent discloses a way that a customer can visualize a photographic picture prior to the making of a print, the apparatus appears to permit only variable magnification of the film image, without cropping. Furthermore, the apparatus of the Japanese patent, like the apparatus of the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 4,482,924, fails to provide for printing in a format other than that which is fixed by the film image. Additionally, in order for a photographic customer to always view a video image in a normally oriented position, the apparatus of both patents is limited to receiving a photographic film of only one particular format. The latter limitation makes it awkward to view displays of images of the opposite format, whereas the former limits the freedom to customize the format of finished prints.